15 Rarely Seen Royal Family Christmas Photos

Ah, Christmas. ‘Tis the most wonderful time of the year for everyone, and that includes the royal family. These photos, rarely seen, depict some of the royal family’s most special Christmas moments.

Queen Victoria’s Christmas tree, 1848

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This colorful engraving of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert admiring their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle with four of the nine children they’d eventually have together appeared in the Illustrated London News in December 1848. Queen Victoria is known as the “grandmother of Europe” because she had so many children, many of whom had many children and married members of royal families across Europe. She’s also the mutual great-great-grandmother of both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, which is just one of the ways these two are related.

Princess Mary supports WW I soldiers at Christmas

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In 1914, with World War I in full swing, Princess Mary, the daughter of King George V and his wife, Queen Mary, asked the people of Great Britain to help provide a Christmas gift to every serviceman and woman both at home and abroad. This photo on the front cover of Tatler was part of her campaign. As the first-born daughter of the King, Princess Mary was to Great Britain in 1914 what Princess Anne is to Great Britain in 2018. These nostalgic Christmas photos that will take you back a century or more.

Queen Mary doing her Christmas shopping in 1922

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The wife of King George V, Queen Mary (born Mary of Teck) opens the holiday shopping season with a visit to Harrods department store in London, where she purchased many of her Christmas gifts.

A princess and her mum see a Christmas show in 1937

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In 1937, the future Queen, Princess Elizabeth, goes to a children’s Christmas show with her mum, Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI and later The Queen Mother.

Queen Elizabeth II’s first Christmas as Queen

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Queen Elizabeth II’s first Christmas as Queen was in 1952. Here she’s pictured with two of her children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne (her two younger children, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were born later) as well as her sister, Princess Margaret (in the corner of the car window), greeting crowds who call out “Happy Christmas” greetings. Don’t this these 13 “facts” about the Queen that aren’t true.

Prince Charles’s first Christmas as Prince of Wales

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Prince Charles was made Prince of Wales on July 1, 1969, when he was 21 years old. Here, he’s pictured on Christmas Day of that same year at Windsor Castle with his sister, Princess Anne and ten of the younger members of the royal family, including his brothers, Prince Andrew (fourth from the right) and Prince Edward (far right).

Prince William’s first Christmas

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In December 1982, Diana, Princess of Wales and her six-month-old baby, Prince William, pose for the cameras for a Christmas portrait. It was the first time William was seen in public since his Christening. Check out these royal milestones you might have missed.

Prince Harry’s first Christmas

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Prince Harry had just recently been born in this photo taken on Christmas Day 1984. He’s pictured with his older brother, Prince William, and his parents, Prince Charles and his then-wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. The photo was taken from footage of the BBC’s presentation of The Queen’s Christmas that year. You won’t want to miss these 15 rarely seen photos of Diana and Harry through the years.

Eugenie and Beatrice with their father, Prince Andrew

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This photo of the princesses, Eugenie and Beatrice, with their father, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was taken on Christmas Day 1995. The sister princesses, dressed in matching outfits, hold their dad’s hand as they make their way to services at St. Mary Magdalene near Queen Elizabeth’s Sandringham estate. Here’s are 14 things you probably don’t know about Princess Eugenie.

Princess Diana’s last Christmas

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This photo of Diana driving herself to the Christmas Carol Concert at Eton School in 1996 has a sad backstory that became apparent only a few months later: it was the Princess of Wales’s last Christmas. She passed away in August 1997. Here’s how she spent her final weeks.

A Middleton family Christmas

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In 2016, for the first time since the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated Christmas with the Middleton family. Here they’re seen with Princess Charlotte and Prince George, attending services at St. Mark’s Church in Berkshire.

Ms. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, 2017

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In an unprecedented move, Queen Elizabeth II invited a non-royal family member to join the royal family at the Queen’s Christmas celebration at her Sandringham estate. The Queen has broken protocol for the now-Duchess of Sussex all these 12 other times as well.

Lauren Cahn is a New York-based writer whose work has appeared regularly in The Huffington Post as well as a variety of other publications since 2008 on such topics as life and style, popular culture, law, religion, health, fitness, yoga, entertaining and entertainment. She is also a writer of crime fiction; her first full-length manuscript, The Trust Game, was short-listed for the 2017 CLUE Award for emerging talent in the genre of suspense fiction.